Updated Gaming & Display Tool

Frame Time Calculator

Convert frames per second (FPS) to frame time in milliseconds and back. Explore how different frame rates and refresh rates affect smoothness, latency and your per-frame performance budget.

FPS ↔ ms per Frame Refresh Rate Budget Smoothness Comparison Latency Insights

Convert FPS To Frame Time And Analyze Your Frame Budget

Use this Frame Time Calculator to convert frames per second into milliseconds per frame, convert frame times back into FPS, see how monitor refresh rate limits your maximum FPS and compare the smoothness gains between different frame rates. It is useful for gamers, video editors, streamers and developers who want to understand how tight their per-frame timing constraints really are.

Frame time is the duration of a single frame. It is the reciprocal of FPS: frame time (ms) = 1000 / FPS. Lower frame times mean smoother motion and lower latency, but also tighter performance budgets per frame.

Enter any frame rate in FPS or pick a preset. The calculator returns the corresponding frame time in milliseconds, seconds and microseconds.

Use this tab when you know the frame time (for example from a performance overlay or profiler) and want to convert it to an equivalent FPS value. The calculator normalizes the input to milliseconds internally.

Each refresh cycle gives you 1000 / Hz milliseconds to draw a frame. If your target FPS is below the refresh rate, you have extra time per frame; if it is higher, you are effectively limited by the refresh rate for what you see on screen.

Compare two frame rates to see how much frame time improves when you upgrade from one FPS level to another. This is useful for deciding whether a jump from 60 to 144 FPS or from 144 to 240 FPS is worth pursuing.

Frame Time Calculator – Complete Guide To FPS, Milliseconds And Smoothness

The Frame Time Calculator on MyTimeCalculator helps you connect the headline FPS numbers you see in benchmarks with the underlying frame times that actually dictate how smooth and responsive your experience feels. It converts between frames per second and milliseconds per frame, analyzes frame budgets at different refresh rates and compares how much benefit you get when moving from one FPS target to another.

Instead of guessing what “60 FPS” versus “144 FPS” really means, you can use this tool to see the exact time budget available to your game engine, rendering pipeline or video encoder for each frame.

1. FPS And Frame Time: Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Frames per second (FPS) measures how many images are displayed every second. Frame time measures how long each individual frame lasts. They are reciprocals:

\(\text{Frame time (seconds)} = \frac{1}{\text{FPS}}\), \(\text{Frame time (ms)} = \frac{1000}{\text{FPS}}\).

For example, at 60 FPS each frame lasts about 16.67 ms, while at 144 FPS each frame lasts about 6.94 ms. The shorter the frame time, the less motion blur and input lag you experience, provided the system consistently meets that timing budget.

2. Converting FPS To Frame Time

The FPS → Frame Time tab uses the simple formula

\(\text{Frame time (ms)} = \frac{1000}{\text{FPS}}\).

If you enter 60 FPS, the calculator will show:

  • Frame time ≈ 16.667 ms.
  • Frame time ≈ 0.0167 seconds.
  • Frame time ≈ 16,667 microseconds.

You can quickly try common values such as 30, 60, 90, 120, 144, 165 or 240 FPS to build an intuition for how aggressively the budget shrinks as FPS climbs.

3. Converting Frame Time Back To FPS

Performance overlays and profilers often report frame time in milliseconds. To interpret this as FPS, use the reciprocal:

\(\text{FPS} = \frac{1000}{\text{Frame time (ms)}}\).

If your overlay shows a frame time of 11.1 ms, you can convert it to FPS and see that you are effectively running at around 90 FPS. The Frame Time → FPS tab allows input in milliseconds, seconds or microseconds and reports a normalized frame time plus the equivalent FPS.

4. Refresh Rate And Your Frame Budget

Display refresh rate, measured in hertz (Hz), tells you how many times per second the monitor can update. Just like FPS, each refresh cycle has a period:

\(\text{Refresh period (ms)} = \frac{1000}{\text{Refresh rate (Hz)}}\).

At 60 Hz, each refresh lasts about 16.67 ms; at 144 Hz, about 6.94 ms; at 240 Hz, about 4.17 ms. The Refresh Rate & Frame Budget tab shows:

  • The refresh period in milliseconds.
  • The frame time implied by your target FPS.
  • How much timing headroom you have relative to one refresh period.
  • A comparison with an alternate FPS for quick what-if analysis.

If your target FPS matches the refresh rate (for example 144 FPS on a 144 Hz monitor), your frame time budget is essentially the same as the refresh period. If your FPS is lower, you have more time, but motion looks less smooth; if your FPS is higher, the extra frames cannot be displayed unless you use technologies like variable refresh rate and frame capping.

5. Comparing Two FPS Values

The FPS Smoothness Comparison tab lets you input two FPS values and see:

  • The frame time corresponding to each FPS.
  • How many milliseconds you save per frame by going from FPS 1 to FPS 2.
  • The percentage reduction in frame time and the FPS ratio.

For example, going from 60 FPS (16.67 ms) to 120 FPS (8.33 ms) halves frame time, giving a 50 percent reduction. Going from 120 FPS (8.33 ms) to 144 FPS (6.94 ms) is a smaller improvement of around 17 percent. This helps you decide whether chasing ever-higher FPS brings meaningful gains for your particular setup.

6. Why Consistent Frame Time Matters

Average FPS alone can be misleading. Two games might both average 60 FPS, but one could have steady 16.7 ms frame times while the other swings wildly between 5 ms and 40 ms. The first feels smooth; the second feels stuttery. Tight and consistent frame times reduce judder, make camera motion look clean and improve the feel of mouse and controller input.

Use the calculator in combination with in-game frame time graphs to understand not just how fast your system is on average, but how stable its frame pacing is.

7. Practical Uses Of The Frame Time Calculator

  • Planning rendering budgets when optimizing a game or real-time 3D application.
  • Evaluating whether a new GPU or CPU actually delivers meaningful frame time gains.
  • Choosing monitor refresh rates and deciding between 60 Hz, 120 Hz, 144 Hz, 165 Hz or 240 Hz panels.
  • Relating streaming and encoding settings to the available per-frame time budget.
  • Explaining performance concepts to teammates, clients or students with concrete numbers.

Frame Time Calculator FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick answers to common questions about FPS, frame times, refresh rates and how they affect smoothness and latency.

Lower frame time and higher FPS are equivalent ways of saying the same thing. A lower frame time in milliseconds means more frames per second and generally smoother motion. What really matters is that frame times stay low and consistent, so your game or application does not stutter or hitch.

A monitor cannot show more distinct images per second than its refresh rate. If your GPU renders at 200 FPS on a 60 Hz display, many frames will never be shown, and the on-screen motion is effectively limited to 60 updates per second. Higher refresh rate displays raise that ceiling so higher FPS can translate into smoother motion and reduced perceived latency.

Stutter usually comes from inconsistent frame times rather than low average FPS. If a game briefly spikes to very high frame times, you will notice visible hitching even if the long-term average looks good on a benchmark. Looking at frame time graphs and using tools like this calculator helps you spot problematic spikes or uneven pacing that averages alone hide.

Frame time is a major contributor to input latency, but it is not the only factor. Input devices, operating system scheduling, game logic, rendering queues and display technology (including VRR, v-sync and buffering) all add delays. Reducing frame time typically lowers total latency, but the exact number depends on the full pipeline from input to photons on the screen.

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